“Honey. Why don’t you come to bed now. Stop worrying about that portal over there.”
“I can’t sleep. Aren’t you… excited?” she decided to call the feeling.
“Sure. I’m here aren’t I? With you.” Always, he thinks but doesn’t say. He still wasn’t sure the feeling was mutual. And that damn portal that’s got her obsessed now, a new one. He’s worried she’ll see something in it that he won’t. Or can’t.
“What time will we go in it tomorrow? We’ve explored the town here today, the immediate neighborhood. We’ve put it off long enough. The forest.. beckons.”
Beckons, he thinks. Interesting way to put it. Sounds like a trap. “Um, how about 2 o’clock?”
“In the *afternoon*? What if we miss something? No, I want to spend a whole day in there, or as close as we can get with our late sleeping habits. How about 9?”
“*Morning*?” he exclaims in turn. “The dew won’t even be off the grass by then. We’ll get our feet wet. Through the shoes.”
“What shoes?” she says to this.
“Our tennis shoes of course,” he replies. “The ones we’re wearing, well, now.” He looks at her feet, then down to his. He knows dew. He had to battle it as a part time cow herder back in the o1’s. These canvas dogs don’t stand a chance.
“Oh. I was thinking boots, as in combat, as in we’re going to war. Against the woods.”
What is she on about now? he ponders. War? Woods? Boots? “There’s nothing in there. That’s what Daisy said.”
“Oh Daisy Daisy Daisy. Just because she lived with her maw here for those several weeks.”
“Years,” Eddy corrected.
“Whatever. (*sigh*) I was just joking about the boots. And the war.”
“Oh. Good.”
“But we’ll still have to battle dew. I’ve decided to go barefoot, how about you?”
It was his worse fear come true.
—–
9 AM the next morning:
“I don’t like this, Shelley. I don’t like this one *bite*.”
